If you\u2019re new to the Almanac, and want to know what it\u2019s like, we have the San Francisco 49ers\u2019 chapter currently available as a free preview<\/a>. In it, we talk about the 49ers\u2019 high DVOA despite their 11-loss season in 2024, the fate of their defense with Robert Saleh returning, and how the loss of talent this offseason mostly leaves them thin at depth, rather than affecting how they\u2019ll play when fully healthy. It\u2019s certainly worth a read!<\/p>\n But, as it turns out, there are 31 teams not named the San Francisco 49ers who will be playing in 2025 as well, and the Almanac covers them, too. Today, we\u2019re going to feature a few of our favorite tidbits from this year\u2019s Almanac, thanks to our crack team of writers and the charting stats we have access to here at FTN.<\/p>\n And remember \u2013 these are facts that our experts pulled out from our data from this past season. If you don\u2019t want to wait for 2026\u2019s Almanac to find out what\u2019s going on in the 2025 season, you can sign up for a Stats subscription<\/a>! Our Stats Core tier features access to all of our advanced stats, DVOA and our proprietary tools like StatsHub<\/a>, while the StatsPro package adds on our vast array of fantasy resources, so you can use the same tools we use to break down the season as it happens, as well as have access to all of the in-season articles, data and analysis you\u2019ve come to expect from FTN\u2019s experts.<\/p>\n Philadelphia Eagles Say Running Backs (Sort Of) Matter<\/p>\n The Eagles weren\u2019t near the top of the league in any one offensive statistic in 2024. They ranked just 13th in offensive DVOA and 14th in passing DVOA. Even their rushing attack ranked just sixth, despite the presence of Offensive Player of the Year Saquon Barkley<\/a>. Barkley also didn\u2019t lead our individual stats, ranking fourth in rushing DYAR and 10th in DVOA. But a deeper dive into the data shows just how well each part of Philadelphia\u2019s offense worked together, and how much Barkley was the key to opening things up.<\/p>\n Barkley has always been a boom-or-bust rusher, and that continued in 2024, with him stuffed on 17.1% of his rush attempts. But he more than made up for it with explosive runs. Barkley\u2019s 46 runs of 10 or more yards led the league, as did his 1,072 rushing yards on such runs. His presence flipped the math of what is expected from a run game and how the Eagles had previously approached offense. In 2023, a stacked box meant an easy pre-snap call to throw the ball to the outside \u2013 and defenses knew it, and could adjust accordingly. Instead. Barkley was still stuffed on 22.6% of runs with a stacked box, but he also averaged 5.7 yards per carry. That mark was 8.1 yards per carry and 43.0% DVOA on those runs in the fourth quarter. That threat \u2013 and the near-inevitability of that threat \u2013 forced defenses to put an extra body in the box to try to limit Barkley\u2019s lead-leading 3.04 yards before contact, which in turn led the passing game to face the most single-high coverage in football. And Jalen Hurts<\/a>? He ranked fifth in DVOA facing Cover 1, jumping from a 0.2% DVOA against two-high to a 10.1% mark against single-high. Analytics would advise against giving most running backs massive contract extensions at age 28. Saquon Barkley<\/a> is not most running backs.<\/p>\n Los Angeles Chargers\u2019 Red Zone Woes Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades, as the Chargers learned to their chagrin in 2024. Los Angeles\u2019 pass attack was phenomenal last season \u2026 through the first 80 yards. Their DVOA of 39.4% ranked fourth in the league. Once they got to the red zone, however, and Justin Herbert<\/a> and company suddenly ran out of gas. Inside the 20, their passing DVOA fell to -5.1% \u2014 23rd in the league, and that 44.6% drop was the largest in the league by a significant margin. Only three teams scored fewer than Los Angeles\u2019 13 passing touchdowns in the red zone, and that\u2019s how you get held to 17 points or fewer seven times.<\/p>\n Joshua Palmer<\/a> had the lowest red zone DVOA of anyone in the league with at least 10 targets at -70.2%, with Will Dissly<\/a> (-69.6%) and J.K. Dobbins<\/a> (-38.4%) not far behind them. Ladd McConkey<\/a> and Quentin Johnston<\/a> were more serviceable, but neither is exactly a big-bodied short-yardage threat. Part of the planned solution for this was bringing Mike Williams<\/a> back to win contested catches, now two years removed from his ACL tear, but he abruptly retired Thursday, leaving the Chargers somewhat in the lurch. That leaves new addition Tyler Conklin<\/a> as their best new addition for close-quarters passing, and that\u2019s less than ideal. Figuring out how to move the ball inside the red zone is going to be a major priority for Los Angeles going forward, and one they\u2019ll need to solve if they want to make a playoff run.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Pittsburgh Steelers Go for the Complete Offensive Reset<\/p>\n Russell Wilson<\/a> is in New York, keeping the seat warm until Jaxson Dart<\/a> is ready to go. Najee Harris<\/a> is a Charger, or at least he is at the moment while he remains in limbo after a fireworks-related eye injury. George Pickens<\/a> is, at least for the moment, content to be a Dallas Cowboy. That makes the Steelers the 14th team in the DVOA era to lose their top passer, rusher and receiver from the year before \u2013 and only the second to do so after having a winning record, joining the 2002 Ravens.<\/p>\n How did those previous 13 teams fair? Not so well. They finished the next season with an average offensive DVOA of just -13.6% and a combined winning percentage of .364. The only team with a positive DVOA \u2013 and, for that matter, the only one to hit 10 wins? The 2006 Saints, thanks to bringing in Drew Brees<\/a>. A soon-to-be 42-year-old Aaron Rodgers<\/a> is not prime Drew Brees<\/a>, but the Steelers also aren\u2019t the typical team jettisoning their top triplets in one go, either. The previous teams in this situation had an average offensive DVOA of -14.3% the year before they lost everyone, while the Steelers were at a more robust -5.0%. A focus on building through the offensive line, a run-heavy game plan, and the addition of DK Metcalf<\/a> gives Pittsburgh a solid chance for at least minimizing the damage on offense.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The FTN Football Almanac 2025 is out now! For over two decades, it\u2019s been the definitive guide…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":227401,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2064],"tags":[241,7,6170,1014,262,2444,2443,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-227400","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles-chargers","8":"tag-chargers","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-football-outsiders","11":"tag-los-angeles","12":"tag-los-angeles-chargers","13":"tag-losangeles","14":"tag-losangeleschargers","15":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114897695810524223","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227400","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=227400"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227400\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/227401"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=227400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=227400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=227400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n![\"Los](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Justin-Herbert.jpg\")
Los Angeles Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert (10) runs with the ball during an NFL football game against the Carolina Panthers, Sunday, Sept. 27, 2020, in Inglewood, Calif. (AP Photo\/Peter Joneleit)<\/p>\n